The Dynamic X-ray Sky of the Local Universe
Abstract
Over the next decade, we can expect time domain astronomy to flourish at optical and radio wavelengths. In parallel with these efforts, a dedicated transient "machine" operating at higher energies (X-ray band through soft gamma-rays) is required to reveal the unique subset of events with variable emission predominantly visible above 100 eV. Here we focus on the transient phase space never yet sampled due to the lack of a sensitive, wide-field and triggering facility dedicated exclusively to catching high energy transients and enabling rapid coordinated multi-wavelength follow-up. We first describe the advancements in our understanding of known X-ray transients that can only be enabled through such a facility and then focus on the classes of transients theoretically predicted to be out of reach of current detection capabilities. Finally there is the exciting opportunity of revealing new classes of X-ray transients and unveiling their nature through coordinated follow-up observations at longer wavelengths.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0902.3674,
title = {The Dynamic X-ray Sky of the Local Universe},
author = {Alicia M. Soderberg and Jonathan E. Grindlay and Joshua S. Bloom and Suvi Gezari and Anthony L. Piro and Tomaso Belloni and Jifeng Liu and Ada Paizis and Edo Berger and Paolo Coppi and Nobu Kawai and Neil Gehrels and Brian Metzger and Branden Allen and Didier Barret and Angela Bazzano and Giovanni Bignami and Patrizia Caraveo and Stephane Corbel and Andrea De Luca and Jeremy Drake and Pepi Fabbiano and Mark Finger and Marco Feroci and Dieter Hartmann and JaeSub Hong and Garrett Jernigan and Philip Kaaret and Chryssa Kouveliotou and Alexander Kutyrev and Avi Loeb and Giovanni Pareschi and Gerry Skinner and Rosanne Di Stefano and Gianpiero Tagliaferri and Pietro Ubertini and Michiel van der Klis and Colleen A. Wilson-Hodge},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0902.3674},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 2 figures; White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 SSE panel